Category: FLC Advocacy Tips

The joys of the holiday season are just beginning. Hopefully this means lots of time with family and friends. However amidst all the holiday cheer, making time for advocacy will help you maintain your “advocacy health” and keep you in tip-top shape for the 2016 session!

Start by making sure your legislators and their staff are armed with information about your community BEFORE they travel to Tallahassee. In this edition we’ll provide strategies to address the following question.

Question #7 – How should you respond to the following statement? It’s a direct quote by a legislator, “We don’t represent cities, we represent taxpayers.”

When “life” gets in the way, it can sometimes be difficult to be engaged in advocacy. This is especially true before and after session. However, those that stay the course quickly realize how important it is to their overall advocacy health.

Now that the League has developed their 2016 Action Agenda, you can focus your advocacy on those specific issues. However, if you don’t quite feel up to the challenge, or confident in your knowledge of the issues, we’re here to help. In this edition we’ll address part two of question six of our Advocacy Checkup, which focuses on issue education.

As your “advocacy coach” for the summer, we’re here to keep you focused and on track for perfect advocacy health by the start of the 2016 session!

Throughout the summer we’ve been sharing strategies to help you develop a successful advocacy plan. One component of that plan should include education. And by this we mean educating legislators about your community before they go back to Tallahassee for the 2016 session. So in this issue we’ll address question five of our Advocacy Checkup:

Question #5 – Do you believe your legislators are better informed after the 2015 session about your city/town and local government?

If you want to be in top advocacy shape by the start of the 2016 session then there are no “lazy days of summer”! So it’s time for another checkup on your advocacy health.

Last month we shared why it’s so important to create an advocacy plan to keep you on track. Part of that plan should include evaluating how you communicated with legislators, the outcome of your communication and how you can improve (or keep doing what you’re already doing). So this month we’ll address questions two through four of our Advocacy Checkup:

Question #2 – Did your legislators respond to your communication (i.e. phone calls, emails, and letters)?Question #3 – If they did respond, did you get the desired results?Question #4 – If they didn’t respond, what can you do to change that?

In our inaugural Advocacy in Action memo, we asked you to assess your advocacy health by answering a series of questions. Starting today we’ll provide you with proven strategies to address these questions that will help you get your advocacy in perfect condition!

Question #1 – Leading up to and during the 2015 session, did you communicate or visit with your legislator(s) as frequently as you should have?

When you visit your doctor for an annual checkup, what is one of the most common pieces of advice they share? Be pro-active about your health by evaluating your diet and exercise regime and how you can improve. The very same can be said about advocacy, especially now that the 2015 regular session has concluded.

A common misconception is that once session is over, advocacy stops until the following year. Actually, this couldn’t be further from the truth. In his book Personal Political Power, author Joel Blackwell shares “There’s only one time you lobby, year-in, year-out, year-round.” So as you reflect on your advocacy during the past session, spend time concentrating on areas where you believe there are opportunities for improvement.